Day 7 - 3 September 2016 - Magic Kingdom fireworks

Cinderella's castle

After a quiet "pool day", we decided to go to Ponderosa for dinner and then on to Disney's Magic Kingdom for the evening firework display.  The thought was it would not be busy as people leave the park and that parking would be at a reduced rate - we were wrong on both counts! We were packed in like sardines in a tin!

Needless to say the display and fireworks were done to Disney's high 'magical' standards and were definitely worth the trials and tribulations of getting there.

More pictures here

Day 6 - 2 September 2016 - Shopping and Capone

Capone show finale

The rain from the "Tropical Storm" was still falling at the start of day 6, so for the first time we switched on the television to look at the local news for the current weather situation and forecast.  Up until this point we had switched straight to Netflix to watch films, including Forrest Gump, Brother Bear and the Big Short.

We landed on the local channel Fox 35, well BBC breakfast it is not!  In between the plethora of adverts which all seemed to be offering amazing finance packages for vehicles (the best up to 72 months interest free), the vehicle itself being a secondary consideration to the package, we got a few live short reports on the effects of Hermeen.  The balance between adverts and content seemed to be about 50/50.  The weather graphics and satellite overlay were impressive and it showed that the worst had passed Orlando and the outlook for the rest of the day was rain showers with varying amounts.

First off the girls had been hankering after an American McDonald's breakfast, so off we trotted.  The menu is different, no breakfast wraps much to Simon's annoyance, but 2 x sausage egg & cheese McGriddle and a sausage and egg McMuffin were soon devoured.

McD's American breakfast

The precedent had already been established that rain equals shopping, so a route was planned to visit a Victoria's secrets factory outlet and The Mall at Millenia.

The Mall at Millenia

The girls were disappointed that the particular range of jumpers were not available at Victoria's secrets but this was more than made up by the purchases from Saphora, Mac and Pink in the Mall whilst the olds drooled over products in the Apple store.

Apple store

Shopping over and the girls all spent up it was back to base to find something for the evenings entertainment.

Dear old Mr Google proved very helpful and a combined dinner and show was booked at Capone's dinner and show show.  An all you can eat buffet and drink event which was fantastic!!

Knock three times and give the password to gain entry through the secret door

Fam - grubs up!!

Miss Bunny-June and her sisters

Capone's stooges

Fingers Salvatori....

As an added bonus Trudy quizzed a lady sat next to us about the American highway code.  It turns out that you can go right on red unless it says not (left on red on a one way street).  Also cross roads generally work on a first there basis kind of the same as a square roundabout, but inverted because of driving on the right......all clear now!!!

More pictures here

Day 5 - 1 September 2016 - Harry and Hermine

Hogwarts express here we come

Universal Studio's day with a distinct Harry Potter flavour beckoned, the journey now planned with confidence as we have just about got our bearings and we have already visited this site before for the city walk.

On that note when we went the first time and not knowing the scams we got stung for $30 for preferential parking, this time we opted for the $20 parking which annoyingly was actually closer than the preferential parking we paid a $10 premium for last time!!

We navigated around the park heading towards the Harry Potter area.

Taxi anyone?

Knight bus

The bustling Daigon alley.

Daigon alley

The 3D and rollercoaster combined rides along with blasts of water, hot and cold air were absolutely amazing and so realistic.  They call them multi-dimensional thrill rides - the first one was "Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts" - successfully completed although Jodie opted to "look after the bags" given the potential darkness!!

We took the Hogwarts express to Hogsmeade.

All aboard

Once at Hogsmeade the girls chose to ride the Dragon, (Simon was too scared!) choosing the green one as opposed to the red dragon. This was a fantastic twisty twirly rollercoaster which seemed to last a while. In usual Trudy style, moments from flaking out.......  the lack of oxygen due to the screaming, speed and upside down-ness meant she had to take a minute before exiting the ride so that her legs would work again!

We then proceeded to Hogwarts and we went on another multi-dimensional ride with Harry Potter on his forbidden journey out of Hogarts via the quiditch field. There are warnings that if you suffer from motion sickness - or a long list of other conditions - you should not ride/fly and it is understandable why as Simon was only moments away from..... This was an amazing experience and one which we hope to repeat before heading home, albeit this time Simon may opt to 'look after the bags' as he came off a little green around the gills!

Jodie again showed her skills at bag guarding!!

Hogwarts

Hogwarts

As the park began to give announcements out about a pending weather system arriving we started to make our way out of the park, but not before getting drenched on the Jurassic park river adventure ride - Jodie now an expert at bag protection, and rides on the Reign of Kong for Jenny and Trudy (not sure that one was really worth the wait!) - Jodie now had a deputy bag protection officer in Simon. The last ride of the day was by far the best rollercoaster ever (well according to Trudy anyway!)....... 'The Hulk' which Trudy & Jenny went on, Jodie had a headache and Simon had given up by then! Definitely another one to 'do' before we leave and Trudy managed to breathe the whole way round and walked off without a trace of feinting!!!

Hurricane Hermine 

The Universal Studio weather announcements turned out to be Hurricane Hermine (pronounced Hermeen in USA English) which hit during the evening and overnight.  It was downgraded to a tropical storm and nevertheless it bought the worst flooding for 11 years to the gulf coast.  Thankfully in central Florida where we are based there was no major impact other than a thunder and lightning storm and plenty of rain in the middle of the night.  BBC report here

More pictures can be found here

Day 4 - 31 August 2016 - Shopping & Ponderosa

First designated shopping day saw us take an uneventful journey to Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets.  Freeway 192, onto IS 4 and off at junction 68.

Brands

Jodie & Jenny went off together in search of "bargain" designer ware, whilst the olds had a leisurely Starbucks and wander around. Trudy enjoyed people watching as well as observing the sparrows who seem to be the resident birds at the outlet. Simon's purchased of a pair of Nike running shoes - although these shoes get off lightly as they will not see any running!!

It was quite amusing that the girls reappeared a few hours later with the same selection of shopping bags, containing the same selection of items just in different colours.

A plan was hatched for an evening meal at Ponderosa, mainly because we were confident to get to it without problem, having driven passed it a few times, and also because it had been recommended by our friends Sue & Andy - no pressure!!....

The offering consists of an all you can eat buffet, including afters to which you add your main dish i.e. steak, chicken, etc.

I am pleased to report that we all enjoyed the food although we weren't really sure of the correct way to tip, Trudy was carefully watching the other diners to see what they did, it appeared none of them left anything so we came to the conclusion that we should have tipped at the point of ordering? Who knows?! 

After a wander around the shop next door we ventured home where our resident Gecko was waiting for us. There are loads of them around, we like Gecko's.

Day 3 - 30 August 2016 - Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom

Today saw our first trip into the World of Walt Disney, in this case Animal Kingdom.  Jodie (assisted by TomTom) from this point onwards was and is in charge of navigation and for once we managed to get somewhere (and nearly back) without missing or taking the wrong turn.

The American road system still continues to be a source of wonderment, they seem to have times where its ok to go on red, other times when its green random traffic pops across the path deemed as your time to go plus they have crossroads where everyone stops and no ones seems to have any idea who goes first! 

Anyway first stop (aside from the restrooms of course) was 'Africa' where we all enjoyed the Kilimanjaro Safari complete with a dodgy bridge, Lions, Elephants, Giraffes, Hippos, Rhinos, Zebra's and other wild animal and birds. Half way around they make the bridge pretend to collapse as the truck goes over, the lady behind us (a fellow Brit) actually thought it was real and her reaction (words of which are unrepeatable here!) was even funnier than the trick itself.

We finished in good time to go to one of the festival of the Lion King shows, which was excellent.

Lion King show finale

Then it was on to the Gorilla falls exploration trail where we saw some gorillas up close and personal and extremely captivating. We watched them for a while as they did us! The highlight had to be seeing one of the baby gorillas, Jodie was in charge of a camera and got some amazing footage.

If I just nip round here do you think the Silver back will notice?

Cute junior

Hmmmm - what's junior up to now...

I've got my eye on you

A quick (as in length of time as opposed to speed) train journey to Rafiki's planet watch to see the petting animals including a Bearded Dragon, a quick pose with Chip & Dale for the girls and then off to the Kai rapids which were a little disappointing and Expedition Everest rollercoaster which only Jenny and Trudy braved. The thing with this ride is that you can't see where it goes and so until you get on it you have no idea what is in store............ There were a few unexpected happenings so probably a good thing otherwise Trudy may well have chickened out!! Simon of course would have gone on but he didn't want to leave Jodie on her own......................righto ;) 

View looking towards the Expedition Everest roller coaster

Trudy & Jenny "enjoying" the Expedition Everest roller coaster

'It's tough to be a bug' 3D show was in a cinema under the tree of life and included some great special effects as well as the 3D presentation.

The Tree of Life

More pictures here

Day 2 - 29 August 2016 - Taco Bell, Shopping & Universal

Waking up on the first morning to the sound of two hungry teenagers is not a good start to the day, or holiday for that matter.  It was late when we arrived (uk time) and we were in no mood to go out again and get essential supplies. So the first priority was food and water which meant venturing out from our luxury accommodation, braving the road system and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Following the problems with navigation on our arrival we downloaded the maps for southern north America for TomTom (other satellite navigations systems are available) and updated the "home" location for our new base, at least we will be able to get back easily!!

It was decided (by said teenagers) that "Ihop" was the place to get breakfast from, so off we set in search of one.  Suffice it to say that after some driving around, and having spotted Ihop's on the other side of the highway (road), hunger levels were going through the roof so we pulled off the main highway (road) into a shopping complex in the hope of finding something.  The first place being a Taco Bell which ticked the boxes and in we went.

Taco Bell

It did hit the mark, although Trudy was not keen on her iced tea without ice (would much rather have preferred it hot with milk)!

Suitably refuelled next stop was grocery shopping and as luck would have it we were right next to a huge Walmart store.  Supplies were gathered and we headed home using sat nav, with a car boot full of plastic bags of groceries (no charge for the bags!!!).

Jodie in her element

After a few hours in the pool we decided to have a drive down International drive.  International drive sounds grander than it is and doesn't seem to be a straight road, or at least not the way Simon drives down it.  Anyway we finished up near to Universal studios and decided to go to City walk at Universal.

Large is large

"Life's a box of chocolates"

More pictures can he found here

The journey to the USA! 28th August 2016

Preparations, unusually so, had been good for this years 'vacation' so the stress levels pre-journey initialisation had been kept to a relative minimum. There was the obvious niggle 'will Jodie throw up throughout the whole flight' and 'will I manage not to feint or be a jabbering wreck pre-boarding' but to be honest from a blog point of view it was really all rather boring. Jodie was fine. I was fine. Nobody sat around us had issues and I'm pleased to report that the flight was lovely and smooth, until we were just about to land and there was a tiny bit of bumpiness, but I even managed to keep my eyes open on landing and I didn't scream at touch down! I think I can now declare to the world that I am no longer scared of flying!!!!

So..... no drama's there...........however......the whole driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, the lack of a satellite navigational system or map, a driver that pays no attention to the instructions of the navigation officer led to a very turbulent arrival to the villa. I think I shall leave that one to your imaginations and move on!!!

The Villa however, exceeded all expectations, the bed is so big I feel like princess and the pea trying to climb in (I am sad to report though that there was a distinct absence of the pea so that means I can't be a princess)! Jodies bed is simply the widest bed I have ever seen...... ever! I say Jodies as I assume she won the fight about who got that one!  Its simply perfect. The only thing we (well I) missed was a cup of tea on arrival. The fraughtness of the car journey meant that no provisions were purchased so we were all hungry and thirsty!

The Villa

The time difference is 5 hours (behind) so after the explorations we called it a night and went to bed around 8.30 (1.30am UK time).

Looking forward to the next fortnight